File structure
The preceding elements can be stored in a variety of ways in a single file, multiple files, or database depending on the format. Additionally, this geospatial information can be stored in a variety of formats, including embedded binary headers, XML, database tables, spreadsheets/CSV, separate text, or binary files.
Human readable formats such as XML files, spreadsheets, and structured text files require only a text editor to investigate. These files are also easily parsed and processed using Python's built-in modules, data types, and string manipulation functions. Binary-based formats are more complicated. It is thus typically easier to use a third-party library to deal with binary formats.
However, you don't have to use a third-party library, especially if you just want to investigate the data at a high level. Python's built-in struct module has everything that you need. The struct module lets you read and write binary data as strings. When using the struct module, you need...
